The Christian life must be a combination of head and heart. Another way of putting it is that the Christian life must be about doctrine and devotion. Unfortunately, too many of us are either in one camp or the other.
One group is all about the experience. They love feeling there faith. They tend to pick a church based on the worship, not the soundness of the preaching, or the doctrine of the church. If they don’t feel like they love God, then something is wrong. They think a preacher is good if he tells a real emotional, inspiring story. They love books that make them feel good as well. If you challenge them about the bad doctrine of a certain preacher, or book, they get real defensive. These individuals are highly susceptible to being led astray by false teaching. This type of individual finds it almost impossible not to go forward after a very emotional altar call to “get saved” again.
The other group is all about the intellectual pursuit of God. They love gaining knowledge, they love debating, arguing, and defending the faith. They normally choose a church based on the content of the preaching and the doctrine of the church. Feeling is not that important; emotion is something to avoid. They love theology, and believe that knowing the truth is all that matters. This group is susceptible to becoming hard-hearted towards those who disagree with them on minor theological points. They are always finding what’s wrong in others theology.
Now I know this is over-simplified, and an incomplete list, but I think you can see the difference I am trying to show. What needs to happen in our lives is a merging of the good things in both views. We need to have a passion for God that truly effects our emotions. We need not fear expressing our emotions in worship as long as they are rooted in truth, not just a sentimental feeling. We also need to love truth, study God’s word, and let our devotional life be shaped by biblical doctrine. Affection for God that is not rooted in truth is not true affection. We must worship God in Spirit and truth.
Which one do you gravitate towards? My prayer for all of us is that we would merge the best of the two to cultivate a true biblical spirituality.
TDurham
1 comment:
Break me one time. I think we all know I am on the side of the acoustic guitar toting emotional whisperer into the mic for prayer and getting resaved every sunday with an altar call......fuuuurnt. haha. Durham keeps busting me up every Sunday. My knowledge seeking side has always been my strongest. I DO love debating, arguing and defending my faith whenever possible. I lean on my theology and go into that bag whenever the option comes. Balance in any aspect of life is key, whether it be finances, work vs play, or approach to God.
Durham, thanks for the call to balance out.
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